Square meal: Detroit-style pizza gaining popularity in Columbus
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In pizza-obsessed Greater Columbus, the pie is always a popular dining choice. But pizza for dinner during the holiday season? That's a pie hole-pampering convenience for a hectic time.
And digging into heavy-duty slices of a Detroit-style pizza? That’s a comfort food blanketing that’ll help ease you through a long and chilly winter’s night.
Without getting bogged down in dogma or lore, trendy and probably focaccia-influenced Detroit-style pizzas are thick-crusted and rectangular, often with the toppings and sauce above their ample cheese layer, and feature a wall-like — and frequently cheese-enriched — hefty perimeter that fries to audibly crunchy in its pan. What’s not to love?
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While few eaters except for denizens of “that state up north” likely knew much about such indulgent treats until fairly recently, such nationwide chains as Pizza Hut and Little Caesars lately have aired commercials for the growing phenomenon that is Detroit-style pizza.
Central Ohio — a region known for homegrown, thin-crusted pies — has enjoyed a notable uptick in smaller-scale operations offering thick, Motown-inspired pizzas, too. As listed below, these spots include a chic pizzeria, a beloved old bar, a movie theater, a game arcade and suburban pizza shops.
Paulie Gee's Short North
1195 N. High St., 614-808-0112, pauliegee.com/short-north
You can get your chic on and a superior pizza at Paulie Gee’s. If there’s a better pizzeria in town than this fashionably rustic and spare Brooklyn-based operation with a showpiece domed oven, I haven’t been to it. While initially renowned for elite round, thin-crusted Neapolitan-style pies for a couple years now, Paulie’s also has made it hip to eat squares.
Created in collusion with local kitchen magician Dan the Baker, “squares” are Paulie's Detroit-style offerings. Brawny yet not sloppy, fancy yet crowd-pleasing, the squares roster includes overachieving beauties with desirably lacy cheese-enriched edges, like the Mortadella Special (with burrata, garlic, Parmigiano Reggiano) and the Pep and Sausage (with ricotta, hot honey and fresh basil).
Pie of the Tiger
Multiple locations, facebook.com/pieofthetigerofficial/
Operating under the aegis of Yellow Brick Pizza, Pie of the Tiger was the first Columbus-launched pizzeria wholly dedicated to Detroit-influenced pies; its slabs are among the best Motowners around. Bonus: Tiger resides in the no-nonsense Short North Tavern — a cozy and affordable old watering hole that predates Short North gentrification (a second Tiger has opened at Mid City Garage in German Village).
Expect thick, terrifically crispy crusts with irresistible fried-cheese-bolstered edges; true-to-type springy, puffy middles; and toppings that range from classic, a la Tiger’s lusty Just Pepperoni (a far-too-modest title) to outside-the-pizza-box creative, a la Tiger’s mustard-drizzled, deli sandwich-esque, mighty Tiny Panther pizza.
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Fibonacci's Pizzeria (inside Studio 35)
3055 Indianola Ave., 614-262-7505, studio35.com
Fibonacci’s is the best pizzeria in a local movie theater, and it operates inside one of the best local movie theaters, Studio 35 Cinema & Drafthouse. Echoing Paulie Gee’s, Fibonacci’s built its reputation on Neapolitan-style pies baked in an elaborate oven before adding Detroiters to its menu.
Fibonacci’s sells the latter as “Rock City pan pizzas” — which alludes to a Kiss song, "Detroit Rock City," and acknowledges that from Smokey Robinson to Iggy Pop, Detroit has been home to myriad rock stars.
Your mouth should be home to a Rock City Hot Swarm pizza — Ezzo pepperoni, ricotta and house hot honey atop a smoke-scented, impressive Detroit-style chassis. If zesty sausage and giardiniera sound good together — they are — order a Rock City Abe Froman.
Square Slice Pizzeria (inside Old North Arcade)
2593 N High St., 614-754-8189, squareslicepizzeria.com/columbus
Irreverence entertainingly pervades Old North Arcade, a popular dive bar hangout near the Ohio State University campus with a metal-happy soundtrack, 20-some beers on tap and loads of old-school games — arcades, consoles, pinball, air hockey, you name it — that are mostly free to play for imbibing customers.
Old North Arcade also has Square Slice Pizzeria, which exclusively bakes Detroit-style pies with house-made dough and a lively house-made sauce. If somewhat dense in the middle, Square Slice’s creations offer plenty of flavor and dark-edged crunch. Carnivorous types will dig the zesty, umm, Meatwad with bacon, sausage, capicola and Ezzo pepperoni; veg-heads will enjoy the decked-out Bulbasaur.
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Sexton's Pizza
Multiple locations, sextonspizza.com
Offering multiple crust styles is the biggest trend among local pizzerias. Like its year-old Hilliard sibling, the older Sexton’s in Gahanna I recently visited — it’s a modest-sized, super-friendly place — offers five different crusts, including the expected Detroit option.
Customers rave about the Detroit-style Kevin Bacon for great reasons: With cup-and-char pepperoni playing off candied bacon atop a weighty, somewhat bready crust, it’s sweet and savory, salty and zesty and extra hearty. If meat isn’t your thing, try the I’m Vegan pizza with garlic oil, tomato plus plant-based sausage and mozzarella.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Detroit-style square pizza becoming more popular
